How many times have you heard someone say, “Video is one of the most, if not the most important, marketing tool”? You’ve likely heard that sentiment several times (I’ve written iterations of that phrase probably 100 times).
While you may be tired of hearing it, it’s true. Consumers love video. 53% of people want to see more videos in the future and 85% of people who view a product video are more likely to add that product to their cart.
So, what kind of video content should you be producing for your business? Where do you even begin? This article will outline the 9 different types of marketing videos to help get your video strategy off the ground.
1. Explainer Videos
If you’re new to video marketing, explainer videos are a great starting place. Who are you? What does your business do? What products or services do you provide?
I’m sure all of that information is spelled out on your website, so why not put it into an easily digestible form? In fact, people spend 2.6x more time, on average, on pages with video than without. It’s also probably unlikely that someone will read through your entire website.
Explainer videos are versatile in that they can live on your website and also serve as an ice-breaker with potential new clients. Send the explainer video in an introductory email or presentation and pin it to the top of your social media channels.
Here’s a pro-tip when it comes to explainer videos: consider making it an animated video. Animations have a longer shelf-life and are more easily updated down the road. Let’s say you choose an employee to be featured heavily in your explainer video, and two years down the road, that employee leaves. You’ll need to re-shoot and potentially re-write the entire video depending on how involved that person was in the final product.
Here’s a look at VMG Studios’ explainer video, where we opted for an animated-based option.
I understand an animated video doesn’t make sense for every business where either their people or their product needs to be showcased in real life. Take Stitch Fix, for example, where a live-action video was the best fit.
Write down what you’d like to highlight about your business in your explainer video to help determine whether it should be live-action or animation.
READ: 7 Benefits of an Explainer Video
2. Company Culture Videos
Company culture videos are a good follow-up to your explainer video. Now that a potential client understands what your business does or provides, it’s time for them to get to know the people who work there.
You can showcase your company culture in a variety of ways. Here at VMG Studios, we have “meet the team” videos for each employee on our website. These videos help personalize our brand to customers and showcase our goofy, fun personalities.
We’ve also done company culture video series on our social media channels, including “Staff Picks” videos that highlighted some of our favorite things like TV shows, books, and podcasts. We even had a special holiday series.
While these videos may not bring in revenue, per se, they could be the tipping point of a client choosing to work with you over someone else.
3. Behind-The-Scenes Videos
In the digital age of readily available information at our disposal, people love to see how things work, how they’re put together, and the “secrets” of someone’s process. This is where behind-the-scenes videos come into play.
This can even fall under the company culture section—showing how your team works in their natural setting.
As a creative marketing agency with roots in video production, we find people are often fascinated by the inner workings of putting together a video. If you’re able to give outsiders a glimpse behind the curtain, it can help them understand your process.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes timelapse video of a set build at VMG Studios.
I used to work at KPTV, a local TV news station in Portland, OR, and while I worked there, we launched a popular series called, “Hey, Do My Job” where the station’s well-known on-air talent would try their hand at other people’s jobs. These behind-the-scenes-type videos have been a big hit on social media since it gives viewers a never-before-seen look at some well-known jobs.
Take Andy Carson’s piece, where he got to see what it was like to work as a seasonal employee at an Amazon fulfillment center.
Or Stephanie Kralevich who took a stab at becoming a K9 handler with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
If there is a way for you to highlight your work in a video, do it! It offers a unique perspective and can show off your capabilities in a different way.
4. Testimonial & Case Study Videos
This kind of video can also be classified as a customer story or customer review. It’s a place for your actual customers to talk about how great your business, your product, or your service is.
Positive or negative reviews can make or break a business (I mean, take a look at Yelp, for example), so it’s always a great idea to get some positive feedback on your website.
Here’s an example of one of VMG’s testimonial videos.
There are different ways to produce testimonial or case study videos, and they’re extremely important in our climate of “word-of-mouth” advertising, which now lives on social media. 92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer and 70% trust recommendations even if they’re from somebody they don’t know.
If you don’t have the time or resources to have individual case study videos for each client, you can do a mash-up video with some sound bites from several clients that are wrapped into a nice, neat present.
Dropbox does a nice job of this in the video below.
5. How-To & Tutorial Videos
If you buy a bed frame from IKEA, it’s going to come with a set of instructions on how to assemble it. Helpful? Yes. But I’ll be honest, I’ve put together plenty of pieces of furniture from IKEA before, and sometimes those instructions aren’t crystal clear. This is where video can help fill the void.
Walking someone step-by-step through a process could convert someone who’s simply browsing into a paying customer. There’s no such thing as being too helpful, and how-to or tutorial videos are a great way to assist your customers.
How-to and tutorial videos are littered across YouTube.
Take beauty videos, for example, which are popular on the platform. This may or may not shock you, but the majority of these videos aren’t made by the companies that create the products used in the videos.
In fact, a study found that 86% of the top 200 beauty videos on YouTube were made by content creators versus branded or professional content. Think about the opportunity those companies are missing out on when they’re not making that kind of content.
How-to videos don’t have to be complicated. An example of clean and simple how-to videos is cooking or drink recipes, like the video from Queen Bee Mixology below.
In case you needed another reason to dabble in the how-to video world, Google found that how-to videos earn the most attention of any category on YouTube, even more than music clips or gaming.
Here's a how-to video VMG put together for learning how to record high-quality video on your home computer.
6. Product Videos
Product videos can overlap into the how-to section, such as showing how a specific product works or how to set it up, however, there are many other kinds of product videos to play around with. These include:- Unboxing videos
- Product tour videos
- How-to videos
- Life hack videos
- Production line videos
- Testimonials and reviews
Click Here to Read How Product Video Boost Online Sales
More and more people are online shopping than ever before (guilty). In 2020, the number of digital buyers is expected to be 2.05 billion.
Video plays a big role in consumers’ online shopping habits. Consumers who view a product video are 85% more likely to add that product to their cart than someone who doesn’t watch a video.
Here are some examples of product videos.
7. Vlog/Webinars
Social media has played a major role in the increase of online video content. In fact, a Facebook executive predicted that their platform will be all video and no text by 2021, similar to YouTube.
With this, we’ve seen the rise of vlogs and webinars.
Vlogs, or a video blog, are generally more casual and often feature a person talking directly to camera about something they’re passionate or knowledgeable about. Some can be as simple as hitting record on a smartphone and talking about your chosen topic.
Other times, they can be a little bit more produced and include supporting graphics and music, such as our video, “How Much Does a Video Cost?”
Webinars are similar in that they are usually more casual, but they often include groups of people actively engaging with one another in real-time. You can think of webinars as an online course, where one person or several people teach a class on a particular topic.
Webinars are often collaborative, where the audience can ask questions, and can help establish your thought leadership on your chosen topic.
You can learn more about the power of webinars from IMPACT in the video below.
8. Event Videos
Event videos are huge in today’s world of endless amounts of conferences and expos. With up to thousands of people attending a single conference, video is a great way to grab the attention of people walking by and convey your message as quickly as possible. Video also helps break up keynote speeches with a quick change of pace.
The same can be said for virtual events, which are becoming more popular with the increase of people who work remotely. A report found that 4.7 million people in the U.S. are remote workers.
Apple utilizes designated events to announce its latest products, many of which are showed off with (yep, you guessed it) video. The beginning of their product launch event in 2019 even started with a video.
Video is important in events even before it happens. Promotional videos can help convince people to buy tickets. Just take a look at the SXSW (South by Southwest) trailer for their 2020 event.
I don’t know about you, but that video makes me want to attend (unfortunately, it was canceled due to coronavirus concerns).
If you’re hosting an event, speaking at an event, or serving as a vendor, consider creating video assets to engage and delight your audience.
9. Video Emails
So how do you cut through all that noise and get people to not only open your email, but digest its contents? Well, obviously if you’ve made it this far in the article, you know the answer is video!
Just like vlogs, video emails can be more informal, like a simple introductory video where you state your name, title, and purpose for reaching out.
Here's a video email from Marcus Sheridan talking about IMPACT's Digital Sales & Marketing World conference being postponed due to COVID-19.
Also, do you remember when I talked about explainer videos at the beginning of this article? Throw that in an email to a prospective client!
Finding the Right Marketing Video for Your Business
There are plenty of options to choose from when it comes to implementing video into your business. The best part is how versatile video is, and the ability to mix and match different kinds of videos into the perfect marketing strategy. Even choosing just a few of these video options will help step up your marketing game.
- Explainer
- Company culture
- Behind-the-scenes
- Testimonials & case studies
- How-to & tutorials
- Product
- Vlog/webinars
- Event
If you’re still feeling overwhelmed by the options, that’s okay. There’s a lot to unpack. Hiring a marketing agency or production studio can help you organize your strategy, align your goals, and find the right creative solution for your business.
Learn the ins and outs of video by clicking the image below to download our free eBook: The Beginner’s Guide to Video Production
